The field of strength and conditioning (S&C) has been adulterated with numerous, overlapping terms leading to miscommunication between athletes, sport coaches, strength and conditioning coaches (SCC) and sport scientists. Specifically, the use of various hyphenated terms to describe strength, in combination with contention associated with the proper definition and use of power, warrants the necessity to come to agreement on consistent terminology usage. Considerations should be based on the level of applicability and understanding of those most effected (athlete, sport coach, SCC, sport scientist). Moreover, while the use of kinetic and kinematic variables in describing strength and power related qualities is not incorrect, the population receiving the information must be considered. Athletes and sport coaches may be more influenced by simple cues and descriptors used to create movement intent and overall "buy in" to the S&C plan. Furthermore, SCC may be more concerned with how an exercise or movement will relate to improved sport performance while sport scientists may be more interested with how a specific variable(s) can be measured and quantified. Should the use of ambiguous, overlapping, or complex terminology persist, each of the various populations listed may continue to talk past one another instead of striving to be in agreeance with one another. Additionally, SCC may struggle with exercise selection and muddled programming due to the "paralysis by analysis" phenomenon when attempting to disseminate which exercises and movements to prescribe. Ultimately, the athlete may be most affected due to limited physiological improvement in turn leading to sub-par performance outcomes. Thus, the primary objectives of this article are to advance the field by creating an open discourse between the various individuals involved with the S&C profession while simultaneously shedding light on uncertainty associated with overlapping terms used to describe strength, power and other physical qualities associated with sports performance.


Valid and reliable measures of energy balance‐related behaviours are required when evaluating the effectiveness of public health interventions aiming at prevention of childhood obesity. A structured descriptive review was performed to appraise food intake, physical activity and sedentary behaviour assessment tools used in obesity intervention strategies targeting mainly preschool children across Europe. In total, 25 papers are described, addressing energy balance‐related behaviours as study outcomes and targeting individuals or clusters of individuals at school‐ or home‐based environment. Parentally reported food records and 24‐h recalls were commonly used to assess food intake. Subjective levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour were commonly accessed via parentally reported questionnaires. Accelerometry was used to obtain objective measures of physical activity. Insufficient evidence of tool evaluation was provided. When feasible, food records and accelerometry are recommended as the most appropriate methods to assess food intake in young children. Sedentary behaviour could be assessed via questionnaires that include key indicators of sedentarism and are able to differentiate individual practices. The choice of methodology for the assessment of specific intervention effects should be equally balanced between required accuracy levels and feasibility, and be guided by the intervention targets.


In this review, we report worse developmental outcomes in both HIV+ and HEU children compared with HUU children. CONTEXT: HIV-infected (HIV+) children have worse neurodevelopmental outcomes compared with HIV-uninfected children. However, little is known regarding the differences in neurodevelopment between young HIV+ children, HIV-exposed but uninfected (HEU) children, and HIV-unexposed and uninfected (HUU) children. OBJECTIVE: To systematically review and meta-analyze data on neurodevelopmental performance between young HIV+, HEU, and HUU children. DATA SOURCES: We systematically searched the following electronic bibliographic databases: Ovid Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Education Resources Information Center, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. STUDY SELECTION: Studies were selected on the basis of defined inclusion criteria. Titles, abstracts, and full texts were assessed by 2 independent reviewers. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were extracted by 2 independent reviewers and cross-checked by 2 additional reviewers. RESULTS: Forty-five studies were identified for inclusion in the systematic review, and of these, 11 were included in the meta-analysis on the basis of availability of Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development scores. Within the meta-analysis, when compared with their HUU peers, HIV+ and HEU children had lower cognitive and motor scores. HIV+ and HEU children with antiretroviral (ARV) exposure had lower cognitive and motor scores compared with those without ARV exposure. LIMITATIONS: We were unable to control adequately for intravenous drug use, geographic location, or quality of the assessment independently. CONCLUSIONS: Both HIV+ and HEU children had worse developmental outcomes compared with HUU children. HIV+ and HEU children with ARV exposure also had worse developmental outcomes compared with those without exposure; however, these results should be interpreted with caution. More research is needed to identify the impact of ARV exposure on young children.


Abstract. Raptors face threats such as habitat modification, climate change, and environmental pollutants in many parts of the western USA, where rapid human population growth exacerbates such pressures. However, information about distribution of raptor nests at broad spatial scales that could inform conservation efforts is lacking. To provide a contemporary estimate of nest distribution of four raptor species of special conservation concern (Bald Eagle [Haliaeetus leucocephalus], Ferruginous Hawk [Buteo regalis], Golden Eagle [Aquila chrysaetos], and Prairie Falcon [Falco mexicanus]) throughout Colorado, we used a statewide database of raptor nesting locations to inform species distribution models for monitoring and management efforts. We used generalized linear models to identify the relationship between nest locations and explanatory covariates relating to land cover, temperature, topography, and prey distribution. We investigated the effect of different methods for selecting the sample of locations available to raptors, comparing four selection frames: sampling from the observed locations of the target-group (i.e., other raptor nests), sampling from within a spatial buffer around observed locations, sampling from outside of the same buffer, or complete random sampling of the background locations without respect to observations. Out-of-sample validation techniques indicated strong predictive accuracy of our models. Each raptor species was best represented by a different one of the four approaches to sample available locations, refuting our expectation that models accounting for bias would perform better than those that did not. Our findings were consistent with generally understood habitat associations of these species. These models can be used to identify hot spots with high relative probability of use by breeding raptors and to inform future monitoring practices that use a standardized, stratified sampling design.


Beclin 2 coordinates autophagy and degradation of G protein–coupled receptors. Autophagy is a process by which cells engulf unused or dysfunctional cellular components and is stimulated by nutrient deprivation or other forms of stress. Autophagosomes fuse with lysosomes, and their contents can be recycled as building blocks for new proteins and organelles. Several autophagy-related genes have been characterized in species from yeast to humans, including Beclin 1. He et al. identified the autophagy-related gene Beclin 2 and found that it was required not only for autophagy but also for the lysosomal degradation of G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs). He et al. identified Beclin 2 on the basis of its homology to Beclin 1. Like Beclin 1, Beclin 2 bound to several other autophagy-associated proteins and was required for the degradation of sequestrosome 1 (also known as p62) and the lipidation and accumulation of the microtubule-associated protein LC3 into autophagosomes in response to nutrient deprivation. siRNA-resistant mRNA encoding Beclin 2 rescued the defects in autophagy resulting from knockdown of Beclin 2 but not from that of Beclin 1, suggesting that these two proteins were not functionally redundant. A yeast two-hybrid screen with the N terminus of Beclin 2, which shows less conservation to Beclin 1, identified GASP1 (GPCR-associated sorting protein 1). Coimmunoprecipitation of GASP1 from human or mouse cells confirmed selectivity for Beclin 2 and not Beclin 1. GASP1 is required for ligand-induced lysosomal degradation of GPCRs, and knockdown of Beclin 2 prevented internalization and degradation of several GPCRs. Overexpression of siRNA-resistant wild-type Beclin 2, but not an I80S mutant of Beclin 2 that failed to bind GASP1, rescued GPCR internalization and degradation in the Beclin 2–knockdown cells. The I80S Beclin 2 mutant restored autophagy in Beclin 2–knockdown cells, consistent with the fact that GASP1 is not required for autophagy and suggesting distinct mechanisms for the roles of Beclin-2 in autophagy and GPCR degradation. Cells from mice with a biallelic deletion of beclin 2 showed reduced amounts of basal and starvation-induced autophagy, although not to the same severity as those from mice with monoallelic deletion of beclin 1. In contrast, the brains of beclin 2+/– mice showed increased abundance of the cannabinoid receptor 1 (CB1R), a GPCR regulated by GASP1, whereas the brains of beclin 1+/– mice did not. Hyperactivation of CB1R in mice promotes overconsumption of food, leading to weight gain and diabetes. Likewise, beclin 2+/– mice fed a high-fat diet developed similar symptoms, including decreased glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, when compared with wild-type mice on the same diet. Homologs of Beclin 2 were not found in nonmammalian vertebrates. Given that Beclin 1 does not play a role in GPCR homeostasis, this implies that coordinate regulation of autophagy and GPCR turnover is an evolutionarily new function for the Beclin protein family. Together, these findings show that Beclin 2 has distinct functions in two lysosomal-mediated degradation processes, autophagy and GPCR degradation. C. He, Y. Wei, K. Sun, B. Li, X. Dong, Z. Zou, Y. Liu, L. N. Kinch, S. Khan, S. Sinha, R. J. Xavier, N. V. Grishin, G. Xiao, E.-L. Eskelinen, P. E. Scherer, J. L. Whistler, B. Levine, Beclin 2 functions in autophagy, degradation of G protein-coupled receptors, and metabolism. Cell 154, 1085–1099 (2013). [Pubmed]


* Discusses all types of corporate risks and practical means of defending against them. * Security is currently identified as a critical area of Information Technology management by a majority of government, commercial, and industrial organizations. * Offers an effective risk management program, which is the most critical function of an information security program.


A humanized dialogue system is expected to generate empathetic replies, which should be sensitive to the users' expressed emotion. The task of empathetic dialogue generation is proposed to address this problem. The essential challenges lie in accurately capturing the nuances of human emotion and considering the potential of user feedback, which are overlooked by the majority of existing work. In response to this problem, we propose a multi-resolution adversarial model – EmpDG, to generate more empathetic responses. EmpDG exploits both the coarse-grained dialogue-level and fine-grained token-level emotions, the latter of which helps to better capture the nuances of user emotion. In addition, we introduce an interactive adversarial learning framework which exploits the user feedback, to identify whether the generated responses evoke emotion perceptivity in dialogues. Experimental results show that the proposed approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines in both content quality and emotion perceptivity.


To reduce the number of conflicts in caches, hash function are used. One family of hash function that has been reported to perform well in the presence of stride patterns are based on XORing address bits together. We show that, in contrast to traditional modulo-2m-based hashing, for XOR-based hashing the alignment of a stride pattern has a significant impact. We present some properties that allow to quickly determine an optimal base address.


Purpose
Food insecurity is an evolving nutrition issue affecting both developed and underdeveloped college campuses. The purpose of this paper is to assess food insecurity and related coping strategies among Texas Tech University students.

Design/methodology/approach
This was a cross-sectional online survey in Lubbock, Texas, among college students (n=173). The outcome measures, socio-demographic factors, household food insecurity access) and dietary diversity were assessed using validated tools. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS software. Socio-demographic differences in food security status were examined using χ2, and means testing. Risks of student food insecurity were assessed using odds ratios (ORs).

Findings
Respondents were mostly female (70 percent), non-Hispanic white (58 percent) and young adults' (median age: 22.0 (20.0, 27.0)), with a median monthly income of $1,000 (0.0, 1,500) and spent about a fifth of their income on food. More students were food insecure (59.5 percent) compared to those who experienced food security (40.5 percent) (p<0.001). Some of the severe food insecure students (16.7 percent) reported going to bed without food (6.9 percent) in the prior 30 days. Students with monthly food budgets of ⩽ $200 were 3.2 times more likely to be food insecure (OR=3.231: CI: 1.353–7.714; p=0.010) compared to those with higher food budgets. A students' choice of priority monthly expenses was significantly associated with food security status; however, further risk assessment of dichotomous "prioritized food" and "prioritized other expenses" was not statistically significant.

Originality/value
Student's food budget of $200 was the strongest determinant of food insecurity. Individual training on money management and meal planning are recommended. University policies should recognize and develop academic support policies addressing competing expenses with food.


Abstract The highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza virus is widespread among domestic ducks throughout Southeast Asia. Many aspects of the poultry industry and social habits hinder the containment and eradication of AI. Vaccination is often put forward as a tool for the control of AI. However, vaccination will only lead to eradication when it reduces the virus spread to such an extent that herd immunity is obtained. To study the effect of a single vaccination dose on the transmission of H5N1 in domestic ducks we performed experiments in which infected and uninfected ducks were housed together and the infection chain was monitored by means of virus isolation and serology. Specifically, Peking ducks were vaccinated with A/Chicken/Mexico/232/94/CPA H5N2 and challenged with A/Chicken/GxLA/1204/04 H5N1 one week after vaccination. In both the control and vaccinated groups all inoculated and contact animals were quickly infected. However, the disease signs and mortality differed between the control and treatment groups. This finding may have important implications for the control of H5N1 by means of vaccination.


In Part 1 of this two-part series, studies concerned with the effects of vestibular stimulation on human development and function were reviewed and some implications for therapy were suggested. In Part 2, three categories of dysfunction with possible links to the vestibular system are discussed. Studies in the category of mental retardation evaluate motor development and sensory preference. Possible vestibular associations with emotional disturbance are examined by review of studies concerned with etiology, motor activity, speech, and clinical observations. A brief review of studies concerned with early identification and speech and language factors of learning-disabled children constitutes the third category. Interpretations are drawn and some implications for therapy are made.


Activation of the macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (CSF1R) by its cognate ligand CSF-1 dramatically increases the tumorigenicity and invasive potential of both normal and neoplastic mammary epithelial cells. Recent studies have suggested that the Ets2 transcription factor plays a central role in mediating CSF-lR-induced mitogenesis in fibroblasts. To determine whether the Ets2 transcription factor can also me diate CSF-1and CSF-lR-stimulated signaling pathways in mammary epithelial cells, we expressed a dominant negative mutant, Ets2, in the CSF-1Rand Ets2-positive BT20 breast carcinoma cell line and examined its effects on CSF-1-induced cellular invasion and on colony formation in soft agar. Our data show that stable expression of the mutant Ets2 in BT20 cells completely inhibits the formation of soft agar colonies and abolishes the CSF-1-stimulated invasion of these cells through a barrier of recon stituted basement membrane (Matrigel). We have also demonstrated that the expression of this Ets2 mutant is capable of interrupting the CSF-1Rregulated intracellular signaling pathways by inhibiting CSF-1-induced c-myc, c-fos, and c-jun expression in BT20 cells. Our results are the first demonstration of an important role for the Ets2 transcription factor in the regulation of the anchorage-independent growth and cellular invasiveness of neoplastic mammary epithelial cells.


Previous work from our laboratories demonstrated that the sugar-induced activation of plasma membrane H+-ATPase in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is dependent on calcium metabolism with the contribution of calcium influx from external medium. Our results demonstrate that a glucose-induced calcium (GIC) transporter, a new and still unidentified calcium carrier, sensitive to nifedipine and gadolinium and activated by glucose addition, seems to be partially involved in the glucose-induced activation of the plasma membrane H+-ATPase. On the other hand, the importance of calcium carriers that can release calcium from internal stores was analyzed in glucose-induced calcium signaling and activation of plasma membrane H+-ATPase, in experimental conditions presenting very low external calcium concentrations. Therefore the aim was also to investigate how the vacuole, through the participation of both Ca2+-ATPase Pmc1 and the TRP homologue calcium channel Yvc1 (respectively, encoded by the genes PMC1 and YVC1) contributes to control the intracellular calcium availability and the plasma membrane H+-ATPase activation in response to glucose. In strains presenting a single deletion in YVC1 gene or a double deletion in YVC1 and PMC1 genes, both glucose-induced calcium signaling and activation of the H+-ATPase are nearly abolished. These results suggest that Yvc1 calcium channel is an important component of this signal transduction pathway activated in response to glucose addition. We also found that by a still undefined mechanism Yvc1 activation seems to correlate with the changes in the intracellular level of IP3. Taken together, these data demonstrate that glucose addition to yeast cells exposed to low external calcium concentrations affects calcium uptake and the activity of the vacuolar calcium channel Yvc1, contributing to the occurrence of calcium signaling connected to plasma membrane H+-ATPase activation.


This study first establishes a mathematical model of 5R-P kinematics with the closed-loop vector method, then the corresponding M functions are written, at the same time, the 5R-P kinematic simulation model is built by virtue of Matlab/Simulink. From the simulation, the displacement, velocity and acceleration curves of slider can be obtained on condition that the appropriate initial conditions are set beforehand. Finally, Taguchi method is introduced to this mechanism to optimize the design of each link's length, and a more reasonable combination of each link's length allows the 5R-P mechanism to perform better. Most kinds of complicated linkages can be commonly designed in this method, which is parametrized more efficiently. What is more important is that this method can also be introduced to deal with the dynamic analysis of the linkages for the purpose of carrying out a more comprehensive design and optimization.


Background & Objective: Social phobia has been a prevalent psychiatric disorder which is associated with a wide range of negative effects of different life aspects of affected people. Developing a simple tool is necessary to assess the social phobia. The aim of the study was to assess the reliability and validity of the social phobia inventory (SPIN) among students in Payame Noor University of Lorestan. Material & Methods: In a correlational study, 410 students of Lorestan Payame Noor University were selected by clustering sampling method in the first semester of academic year 2015 – 16. The evaluation of reliability was conducted using Cronbach's alpha, split-half reliability, Spearman-Brown coefficient and test - retest coefficient and in order to assess the validity of this instrument, the relation of subscales of SPIN with other four scales including anxiety from the symptom checklist-90-revised (scl-90-R), cognition error questionnaire (CEQ), self-esteem rating scale (SERS), and multidimensional body-self relations questionnaire (MBRSQ) was investigated using Pearson correlation coefficient method. Results: Convergent validity of the SPIN with anxiety subscales of the (SCL- 90-R) and (CEQ) were respectively r= 0.83, r=0.47and discriminant validity of the SPIN with (SERS) and (MBRSQ) were respectively r= -0.70, r=- 0.44 (α<0.001) . The reliability of the SPIN with Cronbach ' s alpha, split-half reliability, Spearman-Brown coefficient and test - retest coefficient for the total scale were 0.98, 0.94, 0.96, 0.84 respectively (α<0.0001). Conclusion: It seems that the SPIN can be used as a valid and reliable tool for researchers and specialists in the field of mental health.


It's the People, Stupid!
 Karen Phelan is sorry. She really is. She tried to do business by the numbers—the management consultant way—developing measures, optimizing processes, and quantifying performance. The only problem is that businesses are run by people. And people can't be plugged into formulas or summed up in scorecards.

 Phelan dissects a whole range of consulting treatments for unhealthy companies and shows why they're essentially fad diets: superficial would-be fixes that don't result in lasting improvements and can cause serious damage. With a mix of clear-eyed business analysis, heart-wrenching stories, and hard-won lessons for both consultants and the people who hire them, this book is impossible to put down and impossible to ignore. Karen Phelan and other consultants may have "broken" your company, but she's eager to make amends."Finally, an author challenging our broken management models who has credibility—she has been there. Karen Phelan not only explains why the emperor—our sacred ways of managing—has no clothes but provides us with insightful alternatives that promise to add real value to our organizations and the people that make them function."

 —Dean Schroeder, award-winning coauthor of Ideas Are Free

 "Funny, irreverent, and outrageous, this book is making a deeply serious point: talking to actual people and figuring out how to help them work together better is what's going to make organizations stronger, not another PowerPoint presentation."
 —Rosina L. Racioppi, President and CEO, Women Unlimited, Inc.


For classication problems with millions of training examples or dimensions, accuracy, training and testing speed and memory usage are the main concerns. Recent advances have allowed linear SVM to tackle problems with moderate time and space cost, but for many tasks in computer vision, additive kernels would have higher accuracies. In this paper, we propose the PmSVM-LUT algorithm that employs Look-Up Tables to boost the training and testing speed and save memory usage of additive kernel SVM classication, in order to meet the needs of large scale problems. The PmSVM-LUT algorithm is based on PmSVM (Wu, 2012), which employed polynomial approximation for the gradient function to speedup the dual coordinate descent method. We also analyze the polynomial approximation numerically to demonstrate its validity. Empirically, our algorithm is faster than PmSVM and feature mapping in many datasets with higher classication accuracies and can save up to 60% memory usage as well.


The Spondyloarthritides (SpAs) are a group of related inflammatory disorders that share common clinical features and a genetic predisposing factor, the MHC class I gene HLA-B27. Rats transgenic for the human HLA-B27 and beta 2 microglobulin genes (B27-TG rats) develop a multisystem inflammatory disease, offering a model for studying SpA. Several lines of evidence from both humans and rats suggest that intestinal inflammation and the commensal microbiota in the gut are important in disease development. The intestine is the site of entry for vast amounts of antigens, and the intestinal immune system has evolved to be tolerant towards harmless non-self antigens, but still retain the ability to mount protective immune responses against invading pathogens. Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen presenting cells residing in the intestinal tissue at sites of antigen entry, and continuously migrate from the intestine into the mesenteric lymph nodes, via lymph, where they interact with naive T cells. Hence, DCs have important role in maintaining the balance between tolerance and immunity in the intestine.

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the roles of migrating intestinal lymph DCs (L-DCs) in disease development in the B27-TG rat. These DCs were collected by thoracic duct cannulation and their phenotype and functions were investigated. In addition, mesenteric lymph node (MLN) and bone marrow derived DCs (BMDCs) were compared between B27-TG and non-TG animals.

B27-TG animals lack one of the three subsets of L-DCs, the MHCIIhi CD103+ CD172alo cells, in the pseudo-afferent lymph, and the remaining L-DCs appear more activated. The proportion of this subset was also reduced in the MLNs of B27-TG animals. The CD172alo DC subset has been implicated in the induction and maintenance of intestinal tolerance, and thus lack of this subset could lead to breakdown in tolerance and to systemic disease. In addition, BMDCs cultured with mouse Flt3L survived less well than non-TG BMDCs, and this defect could be reversed by addition of the apoptosis inhibitor Q-VD into the cultures. This indicated there could be a defect in the development of B27-TG DCs from their bone marrow precursors. Furthermore, B27-TG BMDCs stimulated significantly less proliferation from naive CD4+ T cells than their non-TG counterparts in a mixed leukocyte reaction. In spite of this, more IL- 17F and less IFN-gamma were detected in the B27-TG BMDC - T cell co-cultures compared to non-TG DCs, indicating skewing of the immune response from Th1 to Th17. Together, these results reveal previously unrecognised defects in HLA-B27+ DCs both in vivo and in vitro, which could have a role on SpA disease pathogenesis. This opens up new exciting avenues of research for the future.


Labor management practices in agriculture are a marginally and fragmentally researched subject with limited theoretical background in agricultural economics. The resource-based theory is proposed as a framework to analyze labor management on farms and its application discussed with evidence of six case studies. In-depth interviews with farm managers, supervisors, and non-supervisory employees provide data to illustrate the provisions of the resource-based theory. The theory requires heterogeneity, immobility, value, rareness, inimitability, and non-substitutability for resources to contribute to sustained competitive advantage. The human resource system of the case farms satisfies these conditions and hence qualifies as a source of competitive advantage. * Funding for this project was provided in part by the North Central Risk Management Education Center. The authors wish to express their gratitude to the farmers and their employees who volunteered to participate in the study and openly shared their experiences.


The paper defends a version of a traditional account of explicit performatives, according to which they are a kind of self-verifying indirect speech act, from recent arguments by Jary and Pagin. I rely on a distinction, made by Bach, between a locutionary and a stative sense of what is said. Although derivations of conversational implicatures and indirect speech acts in general need only depart from the locutionary sense of what is said, and do not require the stative sense (so the speaker does not need to be actually asserting the literal content), in response to Jary's and Pagin's arguments I argue that in the case of explicit performatives speakers do assert it, even if only on their way to making the speech act they primarily intend to perform. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


The advent of rapid techniques for isolating and characterizing specific eukaryotic DNA sequences offers the promise of studying the structure and function of eukaryotic tRNA genes at the level of individual nucleotides. tRNA genes in any eukaryotic organism are readily accessible by these techniques; both their small size and the availability of purified tRNAs as RNA-DNA hybridization probes facilitate applications of molecular cloning and DNA sequencing to these genes. It has been our view, however, that the complex series of steps by which the coding sequence of a tRNA gene is expressed as a mature, functional tRNA molecule is unlikely to be decipherable by structural studies alone. We have chosen, therefore, to focus our efforts on the molecular cloning and physical analysis of a small set of yeast tRNA genes that have been genetically identified as nonsense suppressors (Hawthorne and Leupold 1974). Twelve genetically mapped loci in yeast correspond to nonsense suppressors of known amino-acid-insertion specificity (Table 1). In only two cases, SUP5 UAG and SUPRL1 UAG (Piper et al. 1976; Piper 1978), have these nonsense suppressor mutations been shown to affect the primary structure of a tRNA, but there is now little doubt that all the loci in Table 1 correspond to tRNA genes. The tyrosine-inserting loci have been particularly intensively studied at the DNA level and a SUP4 UAA gene was shown to be mutant in the DNA sequence specifying a tRNA Tyr anticodon (Goodman et al. 1977; M. V. Olson et al. 1977, 1979, in prep.). HYBRIDIZATION TO RESTRICTION DIGESTS We...


Aim: The purpose of this study was to confirm whether psychic stimulation of salivation occurs in human also and to formulate certain guidelines for complete denture wearers. Material and Methods: Armamentarium used for this study includes preweighed cotton packets, two glass beakers, stopwatch, electronic digital balance, cotton tweezers, and hot fresh snacks. After this, the mopping protocol for the participants was made, and each participant was told to follow the instructions for all the 6 days of observations. The collected data of salivary flow as per the protocol were tabulated in terms of increase in cotton weight for all the steps. Similar tables were prepared for all the forty participants. As the sample size was small, a nonparametric analytical plan was adopted. Wilcoxon signed-rank test (nonparametric variant of paired t-test) and Mann–Whitney U-test (nonparametric variant of Student's t-test) were used. Results: For baseline secretions (day 1 without thought of food) values for all steps were overall higher in males, mean value is 2.99 ± 1.14 g as compared to 2.08 ± 0.82 g for females for Step 1 (0 – 3)mts, in males as compared to in females for Step 5(12 – 15)mts. Overall, a significant difference between two genders was observed for baseline flow during all the steps except for Step 5 (P < 0.05) with males showing significantly higher flow as compared to females. It was observed that there was a significant difference between baseline and stimulated salivary flow in all the participants on all the days of observation, except for the Step 4 and 5 where it was near to baseline. Conclusions: The findings generally suggest that yes there is an enhancement of salivary flow with the thought of food, but it lasts for 6–9 min after which it turns to base level.


Purified thyroglobulin, both commercially available and personally prepared by ammonium sulphate precipitation, when fractionated on sephadex C200 shows only one peak whereas on sepharose 6B three peaks are found, two of which were examined further and designated peak 1 and peak 2. Both peaks are large molecular weight molecules. Ultracentrifugation, on sucrose gradients, of purified peak 1 and peak 2 showed peak 2 to behave similarly to 196 thyroglobulin. Peak 1, however, was not found on these gradients, which suggests that it is a low density molecule. Polyacrylamide gel and agarese gel electrophoreasis show peak 1 to have different electropheratic mobility and to be composed of different components from peak 2. Iso-electric focussing showed peak 1 to have a lower iso-electric point that peak 2. Amino acid analysis showed significant differences between the two peaks, which is further verified by values for protein bound iodine, peak 1 having 20% of the iodine content of peak 2. The absorbance spectrum between 230nm and 300nm proves that both peaks are composed of different substances. Peak 2 was shown to be 19s thyroglobulin. Peak 1 contained triglcerids and cholesterol in addition to amino acids and was therefore considered to be a larger molecular weight very low density lipoprotein of the pre-beta type. Time course of radioactive iodine labelling (125I, 131I) of both peaks by intraperitoneal injection using iodine deficient, normal iodine, and iodine enbanced rats showed that peak 2 actively trapped trapped iodine but peak 1 appeared to be passively labelled. Further time course labelling experiments using an inhibitor of iodine organification verified that peak 1 was passively labelled but appeared to be iodinated from the recycling of iodine from deiodinated thyroid hormones. Since the lipoprotein which constitutes peak 1 contains significant stable iodine, this may be the second iodine pool of the thyroid gland.


Sensitive and quantitative assessment of changes in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can help in cancer prognosis and in the evaluation of therapeutics efficacy. However, extremely low occurrence of CTCs in the peripheral blood (approximately one CTC per billion blood cells) and potential changes in molecular biomarkers during the process of epithelial to mesenchymal transition create technical hurdles to the enrichment and enumeration of CTCs. Recently, efforts have been directed toward development of antibody-capture assays based on the expression of the common biomarker-the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) of epithelium-derived cancer cells. Despite some promising results, the assays relying on EpCAM capture have shown inconsistent sensitivity in clinical settings and often fail to detect CTCs in patients with metastatic cancer. We have addressed this problem by the development of an assay based on hybrid magnetic/plasmonic nanocarriers and a microfluidic channel. In this assay, cancer cells are specifically targeted by antibody-conjugated magnetic nanocarriers and are separated from normal blood cells by a magnetic force in a microfluidic chamber. Subsequently, immunofluorescence staining is used to differentiate CTCs from normal blood cells. We demonstrated in cell models of colon, breast, and skin cancers that this platform can be easily adapted to a variety of biomarkers, targeting both surface receptor molecules and intracellular biomarkers of epithelial-derived cancer cells. Experiments in whole blood showed capture efficiency greater than 90% when two cancer biomarkers are used for cell capture. Thus, the combination of immunotargeted magnetic nanocarriers with microfluidics provides an important platform that can improve the effectiveness of current CTC assays by overcoming the problem of heterogeneity of tumor cells in the circulation.


BACKGROUND: A number of instruments have been developed for determination of prothrombin time (PT) and International Normalised Ratio (INR) at locations not limited to central laboratories. AIM: To evaluate one such portable instrument, the Thrombolytic Assessment System (TAS), which can be used in a near-patient setting. METHODS: Samples from 20 normal subjects and 48 patients treated with warfarin for venous thromboembolic disease were studied. The warfarin group was divided into: initiation phase (n = 10), combined warfarin and heparin (n = 10), stabilised therapy (n = 20), and over anticoagulated patients (n = 8). PTs and INRs were determined in each group using three conventional thromboplastins (Diagen Activated, Manchester Reagent, and Instrumentation Laboratory) and two TAS techniques (whole blood or plasma). An independent International Sensitivity Index (ISI) calibration of the TAS system was performed. RESULTS: Calculated ISIs for the TAS were 1.028 and 0.984 for plasma and whole blood analysis, respectively, compared with manufacturer's values of 0.98 and 0.97. INR results with TAS (whole blood) were 11% less than those obtained with Diagen Activated (p < 0.01) and 16% less than those obtained with Instrumentation Laboratory (p < 0.001) when manufacturers' mean normal PT and ISI were used for TAS INRs. TAS (whole blood) results were similar to TAS plasma or Manchester Reagent results. The use of a locally determined mean normal prothrombin time (MNPT) improved agreement between TAS and the other reagents, abolishing the significant difference between INRs determined with TAS (whole blood) and Diagen Activated techniques. CONCLUSION: The TAS system can be used with whole blood or plasma and produces similar INRs to those obtained with Diagen Activated or Manchester Reagent using manufacturer's ISI and a locally determined MNPT. Results were lower with TAS or Manchester Reagent compared with those obtained with Instrumentation Laboratory thromboplastin.


We present certain new properties about the intersection numbers on moduli spaces of curves $\overline{\sM}_{g,n}$, including a simple explicit formula of $n$-point functions and several new identities of intersection numbers. In particular we prove a new identity, which together with a conjectural identity implies the famous Faber's conjecture about relations in $\mathcal R^{g-2}(\sM_g)$. These new identities clarify the mysterious constant in Faber's conjecture and uncover novel combinatorial structures of intersection numbers. We also discuss some numerical properties of Hodge integrals which have provided numerous inspirations for this work.


In the present study, the feasibility to employ the in vitro pyrogen test (IPT) in the validation of depyrogenation process is presented. As one of the main advantages of IPT is its ability to determine pyrogen absorbed to the container surface, direct incubation of diluted whole blood with the endotoxin indicator was first attempted. It was not possible to quantify the endotoxin in control indicators due to the high content, which is discussed. However, it was possible to demonstrate that indicators subjected to the depyrogenation process were indeed pyrogen free, a quality that is difficult to assure when the LAL assay is employed in extract of indicators or medical devices. On the other hand, IPT performed as well as LAL when endotoxin was previously extracted from the indicator surface. Finally, some conditions for incubation of whole blood with the test surface and to dilute the supernatant obtained from the incubation are presented.


Individual Identification numbers are generally utilized for client verification and security. Secret key verification utilizing PINs expects clients to genuinely include the PIN, which could be frail against mystery word breaking by methods for acquiring individual or private or warm area. Individual range affirmation with tolerant look based range zone methodsgives up no consistent impressions and consequently offers a dynamically protected riddle state segment choice. Look based verification alludes to finding the consideration area across consecutive picture edges, and following eye community after some time. Eye following is accomplished by distinguishing a similar eye includes over various picture outlines and connecting them to a specific eye. The estimations are pursued for eye affirmation including various motivations behind the face district, eye development quickly moving, and iris snags to pick their comfort for the notable applications. Eye-stare identification has been generally explored and introduced. The eye can't move as quickly as 30 movements for every second. This prompted proposing an upgrade to the eye tracking framework being introduced. Picture preparing game plan isolates the iris and learns the specific community for an eye, in this way conveying controlled signs with the assistance of a reference place. The signs are controlled at that point utilized with a situation of a mechanized stage through wise camera. This upgrade improved the CPU handling time prerequisites. This presents a paper with a consistent application for look based range passage, and eye attestation to follow the range seeing verification using a sensible camera.


This paper considers the formation of the urban formal ector wages in the presence of rural migration in a collective bargaining framework. We show in particular that the restoration of full employment in the presence of an informal sector can be implemented through a policy of subsidy depends on the preferences of the union and its bargaining power wage. It also depends on the level of rural sector development.


It is common practice for developers of user-facing software to transform a mock-up of a graphical user interface (GUI) into code. This process takes place both at an application's inception and in an evolutionary context as GUI changes keep pace with evolving features. Unfortunately, this practice is challenging and time-consuming. In this paper, we present an approach that automates this process by enabling accurate prototyping of GUIs via three tasks: detection, classification, and assembly. First, logical components of a GUI are detected from a mock-up artifact using either computer vision techniques or mock-up metadata. Then, software repository mining, automated dynamic analysis, and deep convolutional neural networks are utilized to accurately classify GUI-components into domain-specific types (e.g., toggle-button). Finally, a data-driven, K-nearest-neighbors algorithm generates a suitable hierarchical GUI structure from which a prototype application can be automatically assembled. We implemented this approach for Android in a system called ReDraw. Our evaluation illustrates that ReDraw achieves an average GUI-component classification accuracy of 91 percent and assembles prototype applications that closely mirror target mock-ups in terms of visual affinity while exhibiting reasonable code structure. Interviews with industrial practitioners illustrate ReDraw's potential to improve real development workflows.


There appear to be some problems in defining direct marketing. Bauer and Miglautsch (1992) present direct marketing as a relational marketing process. Schofield (1995: 37) suggests that two definitions may be needed: a general, inclusive definition of direct marketing, e.g. the DMA-definition, which allows any use of any direct marketing technique to be recognized as an instance of direct marketing, and a definition of a direct marketing system, e.g. Bauer and Miglautsch's definition, covering cases where a product or service is marketed exclusively by direct marketing methods. This distinction suggests that several levels of direct marketing can be distinguished. The definition of direct marketing as proposed by Raaijmaakers et al. (1992) allows for distinguishing several levels of direct marketing without the need for more than one definition. They stress the importance of direct relationships and the specific use of marketing instruments. Based on their definition, four levels of direct marketing can be distinguished (Hoekstra 1994). Three of them concern strategic decisions and one is at the operational level. These types cover the ever broadening field of direct marketing, including the direct marketing system as well as the use of direct marketing methods. INTRODUCTION


This research focuses on how price changes influence the observed pattern of brand competition. The paper begins with a basic utility model formulation and examines the implications of three major classes of preference distributions on the expected patterns of competition. A price-tier model is proposed to operationalize the theory and to allow predictive testing. The price-tier model is estimated on 28 brands across four product categories.

The results show a specific asymmetric pattern of price competition. Higher-price, higher quality brands steal share from other brands in the same price-quality tier, as well as from brands in the tier below. However, lower-price, lower-quality brands take sales from their own tier and the tier below brands, but do not steal significant share from the tiers above. The results are consistent with a bimodal preference distribution, with the regular price indifference point being located toward the lower-quality end of the preference distribution for the categories analyzed.


In the history of the twentieth century, the role of the military intelligence services in the competition among nations is still murky. Among the world's foremost intelligence services, those of Imperial Japan remain the least known. Few stories are as compelling as those surrounding the Japanese Army's Nakano School. From 1938 to 1945, the Nakano School trained more than 2,000 men in intelligence gathering, propaganda, and irregular warfare. Working in the shadows, these dedicated warriors executed a range of missions, from gathering intelligence in Latin America to leading commando raids against American lines in Papua New Guinea, in the Philippines, and on Okinawa. They played major roles in operations to subvert British rule in India, and they organized Japanese civilians into guerrilla units that would have made the invasion of Japan a bloodbath. One graduate used his Nakano commando training to elude U.S. and Philippine military patrols until emerging from the jungle nearly thirty years after the war's end. In the decades after World War II, graduates of the school worked to obtain from the United States and Russia the release of imprisoned war criminals and the recovery of lost territory, including Okinawa. Based on archival research and the memoirs of Japanese veterans, "The Shadow Warriors of Nakano" shines a much-needed light into the shadows of World War II and postwar Japanese affairs.


Abstract— In vascular smooth muscle cells (SMCs), several mechanisms act in concert to regulate the intracellular calcium concentration [Ca2+]i, which may in turn affect vascular tone. One such mechanism is the extrusion of Ca2+ by the plasma membrane calcium ATPase (PMCA). To address, in particular, the role of the neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS)-associating isoform PMCA4b in regulating vascular tone, a doxycycline-responsive transgene for human PMCA4b was overexpressed in arterial SMCs of mice. Overexpression of hPMCA4b resulted in a 2-fold increase in total aortic PMCA4 protein expression and significant real-time RT-PCR-documented differences in the levels of endogenous mouse PMCA1, PMCA4, SERCA2, and IP3R1 gene expression in arterial SMCs. Whereas no significant difference in basal [Ca2+]i or Ca2+ sensitivity was observed in vascular SMCs or mesenteric arteries, respectively, from hPMCA4b-overexpressing versus control mice, hPMCA4b-overexpressing mice revealed a reduced set-point and increased extent of myogenic response and heightened sensitivity to vasoconstrictors. Treatment of arteries with an nNOS inhibitor resulted in a reduced set-point and increased extent of the myogenic response in control but not hPMCA4b-overexpressing mice. Moreover, aortic SMCs from hPMCA4b-overexpressing mice exhibited reduced levels of cGMP under both basal and phenylephrine-stimulated conditions. These changes were associated with significant doxycycline-reversible elevations in blood pressure. Taken together, these data show that overexpression of hPMCA4b in arterial SMCs increases vascular reactivity and blood pressure, an effect that may be mediated in part by negative regulation of nNOS.


We demonstrated that a homologous series of banana-shaped liquid crystals, 1,3-phenylene bis(4-alkyloxybenzylideneamine), could assemble themselves into various kinds of groove-free diffraction gratings when their isotropic melts were slowly cooled into mesophases between two pieces of glass substrates. The groove-free diffraction gratings included one-dimensional parallel gratings, two-dimensional crossed gratings, two-dimensional fan-shaped gratings and two-dimensional circular gratings. Characterization by means of polarized optical microscopy showed that a pattern of periodic modulation of the refractive index was developed in the thin films formed by the banana-shaped compound. Our laser light diffraction experiments confirmed that these groove-free gratings could effectively diffract the incident red light from a helium-neon laser. On the basis of the diffraction equations derived for the self-assembled groove-free optical gratings, the diffraction patterns were simulated for the parallel gratings, orthogonally crossed gratings, fan-shaped gratings and circular gratings, respectively, and good agreement was achieved. The mechanisms on the self-assembly of the banana-shaped molecules were discussed in terms of intermolecular interactions. Our work provides an alternative method for manufacturing diffraction gratings by harnessing the self-assembly of banana-shaped molecules.


Abstract Introduction: Unemployment is one of the major challenges facing persons with disabilities worldwide. Persons with disabilities experience significantly high rates of unemployment compared with the general population, and are often employed in low-paid jobs. This could indicate a missing link in identifying employment opportunities and impeding factors to the opportunities. This study examined access to employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in the Nairobi County in Kenya. Method: An exploratory study design, using qualitative methods, was conducted with three categories of persons with disabilities: the physically disabled, the visually impaired, and the hearing impaired. A convenient sampling was used to recruit 30 participants from five constituencies in Embakasi in the Nairobi County. Findings: The study found that access to employment for persons with disabilities in the study area was limited. Factors responsible for the high unemployment include inaccessible information on employment, negative attitudes, inaccessible physical environment, low educational attainment of persons with disabilities, and ineffective legislation on employment. Conclusion: The lack of employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in Kenya suggests that poverty reduction among persons with disabilities will be difficult. Therefore, efforts should be made through implementation of effective policies to remove barriers hindering access to employment for persons with disabilities in Kenya.


The early detection of urological cancers is pivotal for successful patient treatment and management. The development of molecular assays that can diagnose disease accurately, or that can augment current methods of evaluation, would be a significant advance. Ideally, such molecular assays would be applicable to non-invasively obtained body fluids, enabling not only diagnosis of at risk patients, but also asymptomatic screening, monitoring disease recurrence and response to treatment. The advent of advanced proteomics and genomics technologies and associated bioinformatics development is bringing these goals into focus. In this article we will discuss the promise of biomarkers in urinalysis for the detection and clinical evaluation of the major urological cancers, including bladder, kidney and prostate. The development of urine-based tests to detect urological cancers would be of tremendous benefit to both patients and the healthcare system.


In this paper we generalize the result of Deodhar (see Invent. Math. 57 (1980), 101-118) on a-localization functors. Namely, we show that localization with respect to a larger family of left denominator sets "intertwines" with tensoring by finite-dimensional representations. In the language of the author's previous work, localization with respect to such a left denominator set produces a new example of an a-functor and an a-category.


Despite the proliferation of studies on the creation of firms' capabilities (learning) and on the nature of capabilities (as sources of firms' competitive advantage), especially from the early 1990s, there have been only a few studies addressing some of the 'outcomes' of learning and capabilities for the improvement in firms' performance. Additionally, even in terms of capability studies, especially in the context of emerging economies, at both macro-level most of them, with a few exceptions, have focused on innovative capability in firms and industries that are based on 'high-tech' and 'assembled products' firms and industries. These are deemed as only possible route for developing countries to achieve international industrial leadership. And most of these studies focus on capabilities that permit firms to move towards and/or catch up with the production and/or innovation frontier led by incumbent firms in early industrialised countries. Thus we know very little about capability building beyond catching-up and their implications for performance improvement. This paper examines processes of firm-level capability accumulation in the pulp and paper industries, across policy regimes in Brazil, during the 1950-2006 period. It goes further to examine the extent to which the accumulation of technological capability has improved indicators of technical (including environmental) to economic indicators. The study found a positive association (not causality) between efforts on innovative capability building and improvement on different types of process and environment performance indicators in the researched pulp and paper firms. Improvements on these indicators were associated with innovation efforts to achieve operational, market and economic performance improvement. The evidence shows that environment performance improvement was associated with innovative capability building. As a result, the findings show that the paths by which latecomers firms can achieve international leadership in processintensive (and natural resources related industries) by building innovative capability beyond catching-up to overtake early innovators. On the basis of the building of such 1 This paper is part of a broader research project carried out within the Research Programme on Technological Learning and Industrial Innovation in Brazil at the Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE), Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV). Such project investigated the pattern of firm-level technological capability accumulation, sources of capability (intraand inter-organisational learning mechanisms, and implications for techno-economic performance improvement in the forestry, pulp and paper industries under different industrial regimes in Brazil (1950-2006). This large research project was sponsored by the National Scientific and Technological Council in Brazil (CNPq), the Brazilian Association of Pulp and Paper (Bracelpa) and FGV. 2 Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration (EBAPE), Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) Email: – firstname.lastname@example.com; Saulo Gomes – firstname.lastname@example.com Paper presented for the VI Globelics Conference, September 22-24 2008, Mexico City 2 innovative capabilities, firms can improve operational and environment performance indicators. Thus, it is not possible to design corporate strategies and government policies for operational and, mainly, environment performance improvement without understanding and tackling the issue of firm-level innovative capability building, especially the nature, direction and rate of innovative capability building within firms. Otherwise, issues like 'corporate social responsibility' and 'environmental sustainability' risk being confined to opportunistic rhetoric.


Abstract Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) has long been used to economically produce hybrids that harness growth vigor through heterosis. Yet, how CMS systems operate within commercially viable seed production strategies in various economically important vegetable crops, and their underlying molecular mechanisms, are often overlooked details that could expand the utility of CMS as a cost-effective and stable system. We provide here an update on the nature of cytoplasmic–nuclear interplay for pollen sterility and fertility transitions in vegetable crops, based on the discovery of components of nuclear fertility restoration and reversion determinants. Within plant CMS systems, pollen fertility can be rescued by the introduction of nuclear fertility restorer genes (Rfs), which operate by varied mechanisms to countermand the sterility phenotype. By understanding these systems, it is now becoming feasible to achieve fertility restoration with Rfs designed for programmable CMS-associated open reading frames (ORFs). Likewise, new opportunities exist for targeted disruption of CMS-associated ORFs by mito-TALENs in crops where natural Rfs have not been readily identified, providing an alternative approach to recovering fertility of cytoplasmic male sterile lines in crops. Recent findings show that facultative gynodioecy, as a reproductive strategy, can coordinate the sterility and fertility transition in response to environmental cues and/or metabolic signals that reflect ecological conditions of reproductive isolation. This information is important to devising future systems that are more inherently stable.


Wade Myers presents a comprehensive and fascinating examination about juveniles who commit sexual homicide. Juvenile Sexual Homicide is a unique contribution, in that it is the first empirical, systematic study ever conducted on this population. Sexual homicide is understood as a murder that has an identifiable sexual component connected to the act, often demonstrated by either an overt behavior or having symbolic significance. Although the act of sexual homicide is a rare event, Dr. Myers painstakingly identified and studied 16 male juveniles who committed at least one sexual homicide. The text is intended, in part, to identify and understand the psychopathology, personality, and behavioral characteristics within a group of 16 male juveniles. The book is divided into three sections, beginning with a general discussion regarding the scope of the research and presents the methodology used to gather, analyze, and interpret the findings. Section two examines the juvenile's behaviors, taking into account the various criminal aspects identified, and applies the known case data to psychiatric and psychological diagnoses, particularly focusing on the juvenile's personality structure and psychopathic characteristics observed. The text concludes by providing the reader with a typology of these offenders, and devotes a chapter to elderly female victims, an increasing concern for law enforcement.


If global society is to address the many environmental and other sustainability challenges that confront us in the twenty-first century, such as climate change and water resources, it will be necessary to make significant changes in our patterns of consumption, production, and distribution. There is a growing realization that while changes in production and distribution are formidable, the proposed solutions may not succeed unless it is possible to persuade individuals and households to change their patterns of consumption to make them more sustainable. However there are significant differences in how key disciplines such as psychology, neuroscience, economics, politics, sociology, anthropology, and history conceptualise consumption, empirically test their theoretical predictions, and use these to inform policy-makers across the private, public and third sectors on how to make consumption more sustainable. This book contains chapters from world-leading experts in these different disciplines that seek to explain the perspectives on sustainable consumption of their disciplines, suggest how these might be further enriched by taking on board some of the findings from other disciplines, and consider what this implies for new policies to address the key sustainability challenges outlined above. The book is dedicated to Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta, one of the world's leading economists who has worked across a range of topics, including environmental and resource economics and development economics, and throughout his career has sought to incorporate into his economic thinking ideas from a range of other disciplines. Contributors to this volume - Geoff Beattie, Edge Hill University Richard Correia, ISCTE Business School Maureen Cropper, University of Maryland Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge and University of Manchester Paul Fletcher, University of Cambridge Ann Kinzig, Arizona State University Laura McGuire, University of Manchester Andrew Oswald, University of Warwick Charles Perrings, Arizona State University Drazen Prelec, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Catarina Roseta-Palma, ISCTE Business School Gerry Stoker, University of Southampton Dale Southerton, University of Manchester Frank Trentmann, Birkbeck College, University of London Alistair Ulph, University of Manchester Alan Warde, University of Manchester Harold Wilhite, University of Oslo Richard R. Wilk, Indiana University


Objectives. To investigate the perceptions of primary health workers (PHW) about the challenges of health care for migrants. Materials and methods. A qualitative multicase study was conducted in eight communes of Chile, using the snowball technique, where 101 PHW and local authorities were recruited. Semi-structured interviews and focal groups were conducted, achieving information saturation. Results. The findings were grouped into two major thematic axes: 1. Technical and administrative difficulties, and 2. Perception of cultural barriers. According to the PHW, although regulations have been established and health care strategies have been generated for the migrant population, these are mostly not stable or known to all PHW. They are also not easy to implement in the various realities investigated. The absence of records on the number of migrants accessing the health system makes it difficult to design specific interventions. Additionally, health care has complications, and the PHW do not necessarily have tools that allow them to provide a care that is culturally sensitive to the needs of the migrant community. Conclusions. The findings put into question the new  challenges in health that Chile is facing in the face of the growing migrant population. The needs perceived by PHW are: stability and clarity in the regulations in force in relation to access and provision of services, training in regulations and the concrete way in which they should operate, and sensitization in cultural competence.


Results: The colour Doppler derived mean velocity of 59 (SD ± 10.8) mm/s is significantly (P = 0.04) higher than the spectral Doppler derived velocity of 54 (SD ± 9.5) mm/s. Umbilical blood flow derived from the mean flow multiplied by the cross sectional area is 114 ml/min (SD ± 69) and 104 ml/min (SD ± 58), respectively (P = 0.01) (student t test). Conclusion: These preliminary data suggests that colour Doppler derived umbilical venous volume flow is approximately 10% higher than spectral Doppler derived volume flow. This can be explained by less angle dependency of colour Doppler derived velocity.


Emergence of new technology in sensor networks, such as low-cost CMOS cameras and others, has introduced more sophisticated sensing modalities such as imaging. Applications involving image processing introduce new challenges to the design of sensor network systems. As the embedded processing becomes more complex, in-situ reconfiguration is seen as the key enabling technology to maintain and manage such systems. Reconfiguration can be used for bug-fixes, introducing new features, and tuning system parameters to the operating environment. This paper presents the ViRe framework that provides for in-situ reconfiguration of complex image processing applications. Applications, modeled as data-flow graphs, are composed from a library of pre-defined and reusable elements. An efficient run-time system, called the wiring engine, is installed on the nodes to manage the graph and interaction between its elements. It facilitates communication by transferring data in the form of tokens. After initial deployment, the system permits reconfiguration of the graph by allowing modification to the edges and addition/removal of elements. Hence, it is able to support complex graphs comprising of elements with multiple fan-in and fan-out and feedback, while incurring a low memory and execution overhead.


Patient safety heavily relies on doctors performing to the best of their abilities, delivering high quality of patientcare. However, changing market forces and increasing bureaucracy challenge physicians in their performance. Despite the dynamic conditions they experience, the majority performs on a high level. What exactly drives these doctors? Answering this question will shed light on how to best support doctors to be the engaged healthcare professionals that society wants and needs them to be. So patients are ensured safe and high quality of care. This chapter dips deeper into what primarily drives doctors, thus we turned to doctors themselves for answers. Being interested in their perceptions, feelings, behaviour, relations to, and interactions with, each other, this chapter relies heavily on qualitative research involving around 1000 hospital-based physicians. Conclusively, doctors can only truly blossom in an environment that stimulates their calling and that breathes a comradeship mindset, where sharing is about caring and peer-support is felt. It's alarming that these essential humanistic and relational values are supressed by today's more business-like climate in healthcare. Curtailing what primarily inspires doctors will eventually lead to doctors no longer having the time, energy and motivation to deliver the best possible patientcare. To restore the balance, we provide recommendations on the individual-, group-, and organizational level.


Binary wavefront control in the focal plane (i.e., binary phase-only filtering) for partial compensation of atmospheric turbulence in fiber-coupled free-space laser communication systems is investigated. Numerical results from wave-optics simulations show that in an air-to-air scenario, the combination of binary phase-only filtering and centroid tracking provides mean fiber coupling efficiency close to that resulting from ideal least-squares adaptive optics, but without the requirement for direct wavefront sensing. This result suggests a simpler and less computationally demanding turbulence mitigation system that is more readily applied to tactical applications.


Considering that fibrin deposition is observed in glomerulonephritis as well as in diabetic nephropathy, we performed studies to clarify the roles of the coagulation pathway and the active type of coagulation factor X (factor Xa) in the development of chronic kidney disease (CKD) using animal models. Factor Xa activates various cell types through protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2). Several in vitro studies have demonstrated that PAR2 can mediate factor Xa signaling, but not thrombin signaling. Coagulation processes proceed together with the extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation through factor V expression in rat Thy-1 nephritis. DX-9065a, a factor Xa inhibitor, suppresses this type of glomerulonephritis. The factor Xa inhibitor danaparoid ameliorated proteinuria, cellular proliferation, and fibrin deposition in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-triggered activation of High IgA (HIGA) strain of ddY mice. Another factor Xa inhibitor, fondaparinux, suppressed urinary protein, glomerular hypertrophy, and connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), and ECM protein deposition together with angiogenesis in diabetic db/db mice. Finally, in the model of peritoneal fibrosis, fondaparinux treatment decreased the thickness of submesothelial fibrotic tissue and angiogenesis. In consideration of the results to potential human therapy, factor Xa regulation may be promising for the treatment of the aggravation in glomerulonephritis and of the early phase of diabetic nephropathy. In the near future, novel factor Xa inhibitors with the characteristics of oral administration and biliary elimination may appear in the clinical use for treatment of cardiovascular diseases.


The management of hemangiomas has always been a matter of controversy. Traditionally, observation has been the mainstay of therapy, with the expectation that most of the lesions will disappear spontaneously. This treatment plan was based on the premise that surgical excision or other treatments might produce a worse result than simply waiting for the lesion to resolve with an acceptable cosmetic result. This plan has been challenged because of a growing number of specialty teams that address these lesions. This article examines various cases of pediatric hemangioma and evaluates the possibility of surgical excision as a first-choice treatment in these cases. One hundred fifteen cases of surgical excision of pediatric hemangiomas performed by a single surgeon over a period of 7 years were examined. Pre- and postoperative photographs were examined. Hemangioma location, size, and type; patient's age; and surgical technique are described. Acceptable cosmetic and functional results were achieved in all surgical cases. Early excision of hemangioma should be the procedure of choice in selected cases of hemangioma. Hemangiomas in areas where a significant cosmetic defect or functional defect might ensue should have surgical excision considered as first-line treatment.


Background: Inflammation is associated with the pathogenesis of several age-related chronic conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis and dementia. Most older adults residing in long-term care (LTC) homes have at least one of these conditions; they also have some degree of compromised nutritional intake due to management, personal and medical challenges. We hypothesized that an anti-inflammatory diet in LTC is necessary and feasible, and may lead to improvements in the health and wellbeing of residents. Methods: A literature review was carried out to evaluate the evidence on effectiveness of anti-inflammatory diet changes in adults as well as the feasibility of LTC menu revision. Results: Dietary components have both positive and negative influences on inflammation in older adults. LTC menu revisions using the anti-inflammatory diet popularized by Weil, which is designed as a food guide, are feasible. This diet could be used in LTC menu planning to complement and expand upon Canada's Food Guide recommendations. Conclusions: Implementation of a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory diet may lead to improved health and wellbeing among LTC residents.


This paper focuses on stiffness matrix computation for manipulators with passive joints, compliant actuators, and flexible links. It proposes both explicit analytical expressions and an efficient recursive procedure that are applicable in the general case and allow us to obtain the desired matrix either in analytical or numerical form. Advantages of the developed technique and its ability to produce both singular and nonsingular stiffness matrices are illustrated by application examples that deal with stiffness modeling of two Stewart-Gough platforms.


Poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) is widely used in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries. Although PEG is a biocompatible polymer that has enjoyed widespread use in drug delivery technology, it is not considered adhesive toward mucosal tissue. Here the authors describe a simple approach to enhancing mucoadsorption of PEG polymers through end group functionalization with the amino acid 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl-l-alanine (DOPA). Using a variety of surface analytical techniques, the authors show that a four-armed poly(ethylene glycol) polymer functionalized with a single DOPA residue at the terminus of each arm (PEG-(DOPA)4 adsorbed strongly to surface immobilized mucin. Successful mucoadsorption of PEG-(DOPA)4 across several pH values ranging from 4.5 to 8.5 was demonstrated, and control experiments with unfunctionalized four-arm PEG demonstrated that mucoadsorption of PEG-(DOPA)4 is due largely to the presence of DOPA end groups. This conclusion was confirmed with single molecule atomic force microscopy experiments that revealed a surprisingly strong interaction force of 371±93 pN between DOPA and adsorbed mucin. Direct comparisons with known mucoadhesive polymers revealed that PEG-(DOPA)4 was equal to or more adsorptive to immobilized mucin than these existing mucoadhesive polymers. In addition to demonstrating significant enhancement of mucoadhesive properties of PEG by DOPA functionalization, this study also introduced a new simple approach for rapid screening of mucoadhesive polymers.


UNLABELLED
Water fluoridation, is the controlled addition of fluoride to the water supply, with the aim of reducing the prevalence of dental caries. Current estimates suggest that approximately 370 million people in 27 countries consume fluoridated water, with an additional 50 million consuming water in which fluoride is naturally occurring. A pre-eruptive effect of fluoride exists in reducing caries levels in pit and fissure surfaces of permanent teeth and fluoride concentrated in plaque and saliva inhibits the demineralisation of sound enamel and enhances the remineralisation of demineralised enamel. A large number of studies conducted worldwide demonstrate the effectiveness of water fluoridation. Objections to water fluoridation have been raised since its inception and centre mainly on safety and autonomy. Systematic reviews of the safety and efficacy of water fluoridation attest to its safety and efficacy; dental fluorosis identified as the only adverse outcome.

CONCLUSION
Water fluoridation is an effective safe means of preventing dental caries, reaching all populations, irrespective of the presence of other dental services. Regular monitoring of dental caries and fluorosis is essential particularly with the lifelong challenge which dental caries presents.


Abstract The presence of infection by human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) in Cuba has been previously documented. However, genetic information on the strains that circulate in the Cuban people is still unknown. The present work constitutes the first study concerning the phylogenetic relationship of HIV-2 Cuban isolates conducted on 13 Cuban patients who were diagnosed with HIV-2. The env sequences were analyzed for the construction of a phylogenetic tree with reference sequences of HIV-2. Phylogenetic analysis of the env gene showed that all the Cuban sequences clustered in group A of HIV-2. The analysis indicated several independent introductions of HIV-2 into Cuba. The results of the study will reinforce the program on the epidemiological surveillance of the infection in Cuba and make possible further molecular evolutionary studies.


A combination of poor oral hygiene and dry mouth may be hazardous to the oral health status. However, systematic assessments in order to detect oral health problems are seldom performed in the nursing care of the elderly. The aims of this study were to investigate the occurrence of oral health problems measured using the Revised Oral Assessment Guide (ROAG) and to analyse associations between oral health problems and age, gender, living conditions, cohabitation, reason for admission, number of drugs, and functional and nutritional status. One registered nurse performed oral health assessments using ROAG in 161 newly admitted elderly patients in rehabilitation care. Oral health problems were found in 71% of the patients. Thirty per cent of these patients had between four and eight problems. Low saliva flow and problems related to lips were the most frequent oral health problems. Problems in oral health status were significantly associated with presence of respiratory diseases (problems with gums, lips, alterations on the tongue and mucous membranes), living in special accommodation (low saliva flow, problems with teeth/dentures and alterations on the tongue), being undernourished (alterations on the tongue and low saliva flow) and being a woman (low saliva flow). The highest Odds ratio (OR) was found in problems with gums in relation with prevalence of respiratory diseases (OR 8.9; confidence interval (CI) 2.8-27.8; P < 0.0005). This study indicates the importance of standardised oral health assessments in order to detect oral health problems which can otherwise be hidden when the patients are admitted to the hospital ward.


Just 18 months after a successful public offering, CareNetwork, a Milwaukee-based managed-care company, is looking for new leadership to restore investors' confidence shaken by a string of quarterly losses. Some critics fault the hospital owners for much of the company's trouble, which includes shareholder lawsuits and the loss of some contracts, and which led to the resignation of two executives.


Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD) is the most common chronic respiratory disease found in premature infants following prolonged supplemental oxygen and mechanical ventilation. Although salbutamol, a selective ß2 agonist, is known to relax the hypertrophied smooth muscles around the small airways in adults, earlier literature has suggested that neonates did not have enough peribronchial smooth muscle for constriction and thus lacked a bronchodilatory response to ß2 agonists. The present study was designed to determine whether infants of less than 32 weeks gestational age with elevated lung resistance were responsive to salbutamol. Nineteen premature infants (mean gestational age 26.0 +/2.1 weeks and mean birth weight 851.3 +/244.4 g) were recruited for the study. Immediately before and 30 minutes after the commencement of nebulized salbutamol administration, a minimum of 15 breaths were measured and analyzed for each patient. From this breath-by-breath analysis, the lung mechanics and Work of Breathing (WOB) were calculated. Results were then compared by paired t-tests. The use of salbutamol resulted in a significant improvement in airway resistance (p = 0.008) and tendency for impedance reduction. These results indicate that very premature infants (< 32 weeks) with BPD respond favorably to bronchodilators. Although the mechanism of action remains to be elucidated, salbutamol most probably achieves its effects through the relaxation of the hypertrophied peribronchial smooth muscle. Early intervention to relieve airway obstruction may promote early weaning from mechanical ventilation and diminish both duration and severity of BPD.


BACKGROUND
Patients with nephrotic syndrome have impaired endothelial function probably related to dyslipidemia. This study evaluated the effects of statin therapy on dyslipidemia and endothelial function in patients with nephrotic syndrome.

METHODS
A sequential, open-label study of the effects of statins on endothelial dysfunction in 10 nephrotic patients treated with an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor or angiotensin II (Ang II) receptor antagonist. Endothelial function was assessed at baseline, after 12 weeks of treatment with statins, and after an 8-week washout. Brachial artery endothelial function was measured as post-ischemic flow-mediated dilation (FMD) using ultrasonography. Endothelium-independent, glyceryl trinitrate-mediated vasodilation (GTNMD) also was measured.

RESULTS
Serum lipids were significantly lower following statin: total cholesterol mean 8.2 +/- 0.4 (standard error) mmol/L versus 5.2 +/- 0.3 mmol/L, triglycerides 2.6 +/- 0.4 mmol/L versus 1.6 +/- 0.2 mmol/L, non-HDL-cholesterol 6.7 +/- 0.4 mmol/L versus 3.7 +/- 0.2 mmol/L (all P < 0.001). There was a trend to an increase in serum albumin (31.0 +/- 1.3 g/L vs. 33.8 +/- 1.5 g/L; P = 0.078) and FMD improved significantly following treatment (3.7 +/- 1.1% vs. 7.0 +/- 0.8%, P < 0.01). After washout, FMD deteriorated significantly to 3.5 +/- 1.4% (P < 0.05) versus week 12 FMD. GTNMD was unchanged. In multivariate regression, reduction in non-high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol (beta - 0.736, P = 0.027) and increase in serum albumin (beta 0.723, P = 0.028), but not the on-treatment level of non-HDL-cholesterol, were significant independent predictors of improvement in FMD after adjusting for change in resting brachial artery diameter. Changes in serum lipoprotein and albumin concentrations off treatment were not associated with deterioration in FMD.

CONCLUSION
Statin therapy significantly improves dyslipidemia and brachial artery endothelial function in patients with nephrotic syndrome. Improvement in brachial artery endothelial function may be in part related to a non-lipid effect of statins. The findings also suggest a role for dyslipidemia in endothelial dysfunction and the risk for cardiovascular disease in nephrotic syndrome.


Occluded person re-identification is a challenging task as human body parts could be occluded by some obstacles (e.g. trees, cars, and pedestrians) in certain scenes. Some existing pose-guided methods solve this problem by aligning body parts according to graph matching, but these graph-based methods are not intuitive and complicated. Therefore, we propose a transformer-based Pose-guided Feature Disentangling (PFD) method by utilizing pose information to clearly disentangle semantic components (e.g. human body or joint parts) and selectively match non-occluded parts correspondingly. First, Vision Transformer (ViT) is used to extract the patch features with its strong capability. Second, to preliminarily disentangle the pose information from patch information, the matching and distributing mechanism is leveraged in Pose-guided Feature Aggregation (PFA) module. Third, a set of learnable semantic views are introduced in transformer decoder to implicitly enhance the disentangled body part features. However, those semantic views are not guaranteed to be related to the body without additional supervision. Therefore, Pose-View Matching (PVM) module is proposed to explicitly match visible body parts and automatically separate occlusion features. Fourth, to better prevent the interference of occlusions, we design a Pose-guided Push Loss to emphasize the features of visible body parts. Extensive experiments over five challenging datasets for two tasks (occluded and holistic Re-ID) demonstrate that our proposed PFD is superior promising, which performs favorably against state-of-the-art methods. Code is available at https://github.com/WangTaoAs/PFD_Net


The dissemination of mutant and resistant strains of Plasmodium falciparum makes a considerable contribution to the spread of drug-resistant malaria. Populations around harbours and airports could be particularly exposed to Plasmodium isolates introduced with imported cases of malaria. The use of chloroquine as well as the use of and sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine is currently an effective method for treating uncomplicated cases of malaria in Madagascar. As part of a monitoring programme, in vitro methods were used to assess the sensitivity of P. falciparum isolates in two coastal towns in Madagascar: Mahajanga on the west coast and Toamasina on the east coast. All of the isolates from both sites were sensitive to amodiaquine, quinine, pyrimethamine and cycloguanil. All of the isolates from Mahajanga were sensitive to chloroquine (n = 25; mean IC50 = 22.6 nM, 95% confidence interval: 16.8-28.7 nM), whereas three of the isolates from Toamasina were resistant to chloroquine (n = 18; mean IC50 = 66.3 nM; 95% confidence interval: 42.6-90 nM). The frequency of the Pfcrt Thr-76 and the dhfr Asn-108 mutations was estimated by PCR/RFLP. The 43 P. falciparum isolates examined, including the three in vitro chloroquine-resistant isolates from Toamasina were all wild-type (Lys-76). Phenotyping and genotyping studies suggested that the prevalence of chloroquine- and pyrimethamine-resistant isolates and of mutant strains of P. falciparum is very low. These results showed that in vitro test and genotyping of resistance markers approaches could be successfully used to monitor the emergence of drug-resistant malaria and to try to alleviate the lack of medical teams able to carry out in vivo test. The possible hazard/risk associated with imported cases of malaria is discussed.


arrcst which responded quickly to atropine 0.6 mg and resulted i n a heart rate of 85lminute with multiple ventricular ectopics. The heart rate decreased abruptly to 60:minute during subsequent attempts at elevation of the fract urc. Anaesthesia and surgery proceeded unevcntfully thereafter. This reflex bradycardia was described previously by Robidcaux and, more recently. by BaintonZ who recommended that atropine or glycopyrronium be given at induction to prevent its occurrcnce. Personal communication I'rorn my colleagues suggests that reflcx bradycardia is not uncommon during elevation of zygomatic fractures, and I now routinely prctrcat with glycopyrronium.


We analyze the problem of recovering the shape of a mirror surface. A calibrated scene composed of lines passing through a point is assumed. The lines are reflected by the mirror surface onto the image plane of a calibrated camera, where the intersection, orientation and curvature of such reflections are measured. The relationship between the local geometry of the surface around the point of reflection and the measurements is analyzed. We extend the analysis in Savarese and Perona. (2001, 2002), where we recovered positions and normals and second order local geometry of a specular surface up to one unknown parameter. We show that, provided that we work in a neighborhood of a surface whose third order surface terms can be neglected, the second order parameter ambiguity can be solved by equating the curvatures observed for the reflected lines with those computed from analytical differentiation followed by a perspective projection.


The structural organization of initially random errors evolving in a barotropic tangent linear model, with time-dependent basic states taken from analyses, is examined for cases of block development, maturation and decay in the Southern Hemisphere atmosphere during April, November, and December 1989. The statistics of 100 evolved errors are studied for six-day periods and compared with the growth and structures of fast growing normal modes and finite-time normal modes (FTNMs). The amplification factors of most initially random errors are slightly less than those of the fastest growing FTNM for the same time interval.During their evolution, the standard deviations of the error fields become concentrated in the regions of rapid dynamical development, particularly associated with developing and decaying blocks. We have calculated probability distributions and the mean and standard deviations of pattern correlations between each of the 100 evolved error fields and the five fastest growing FTNMs for the same time interval. The mean of the largest pattern correlation, taken over the five fastest growing FTNMs, increases with increasing time interval to a value close to 0.6 or larger after six days. FTNM 1 generally, but not always, gives the largest mean pattern correlation with error fields. Corresponding pattern correlations with the fast growing normal modes of the instantaneous basic state flow are significant but lower than with FTNMs.Mean pattern correlations with fast growing FTNMs increase further when the time interval is increased beyond six days.


Many coral reef fishes are intimately associated with branching corals. While these fishes rely on their host corals for shelter, fishes may exhibit behavioral trade-offs linked to spatial and temporal variations in their association with corals. This study quantified variation in coral use by 5 species of damselfishes, assessing key behavioral traits that determine the extent to which damselfishes interact with their host colonies. In situ behavioral observations revealed marked interspecific differences in diurnal and nocturnal behavior among 5 damselfish species. Dascyllus aruanus and D. reticulatus consistently displayed frequent and sustained interactions with and around corals (i.e. frequent colony visits and high aggressiveness towards other fishes) compared to Chromis viridis, Pomacentrus moluccensis, and P. amboinensis that exhibited weaker associa- tions (i.e. few colony visits and low aggression) with host colonies. Coral bleaching impacted modal diurnal swimming positions, thereby altering damselfish−coral interactions under thermal stress. This research demonstrates that coral-associated damselfishes utilize host colonies in very different ways, with complex variations in behavior that extend beyond simple proximity to host coral. Such among-species variation is likely the result of behavioral trade-offs related to coral association. Understanding species-specific foraging and colony-use behavior is important be- cause habitat degradation may undermine habitat associations of coral−damselfish and associated mutualistic services.


Much progress has been made in cancer screening over the past decade, but a great deal more needs to be done if screening is to make a major impact on worldwide cancer mortality. Where fully implemented, cytological screening for cervical precursor lesions has had a major impact on mortality. However, the cost and required infrastructure levels are high, and new approaches are needed if screening is to be effective in the developing world. Testing for the human papillomavirus and automated liquid based cytology offer great promise to improve quality, reduce overall cost and make screening more viable generally. Breast screening has been less successful, although useful mortality benefits have been achieved in women aged over 50 years. Full implementation in countries that can afford it will save lives, but radical new approaches will be needed to conquer breast cancer. Colorectal cancer screening offers the best hope of a major reduction in cancer mortality over the next decade. Less certainty exists about screening for other major cancers such as lung, prostate and ovary, but a range of potential approaches merit investigation.


Conclusions. Polycel® is an effective material to use in ossiculoplasty. Good prognostic factors for hearing improvement after ossiculoplasty were healthy middle ear mucosa and the presence of stapes superstructure. Objective. During the last decade, the surgical use of alloplasts has become increasingly widespread among otologists. This study aimed to evaluate the hearing results after ossiculoplasty using Polycel® prosthesis. Materials and methods. We retrospectively reviewed 188 patients who underwent ossicular chain reconstruction using Polycel® prosthesis and were followed up postoperatively for more than 12 months at Severance Eye-ENT Hospital from 1998 to 2002. Postoperative hearing results were assessed by measuring the postoperative air–bone gap (ABG) and closure of the ABG. Successful postoperative ABG criteria were defined as the following three measurements: ABG of ≤10 dB, ABG of ≤20 dB, and ABG of ≤30 dB. Several prognostic factors were analyzed, including the condition of the middle ear mucosa and ossicles, the presence or absence of cholesteatoma, surgical method, and staging and revision surgery. Results. Of the 188 cases, 22 cases (11.7%) showed an ABG of ≤10 dB, 96 cases (51.1%) presented with an ABG of ≤20 dB, and 158 cases (84.0%) had an ABG of ≤30 dB. In cases with healthy middle ear mucosa and the presence of stapes superstructure, the hearing results were good.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Abdominal pain and diarrhoea are common symptoms in the general population. The colonoscopy is the gold standard method of detecting an organic pathology in the colon. However, it is invasive; it can not be repeated frecuently; it is expensive; and the system is overloaded. Fecal calprotectin (FCP) is a marker that may detect organic pathologies of the colon. The aims of this study were to analyze the usefulness of FCP to predict an abnormal colonoscopy and to correlate the levels of FCP with the degree of activity in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). PATIENTS AND METHOD: 190 people were included in the study. All of them underwent a colonoscopy and a stool sample. People were divided in: normal colonoscopy: 117 people, and 28 colon adenomas, 20 colorectal cancer (CRC) and 25 IBD. RESULTS: The mean (SD) FCP concentration was 2,171.1 (2,133.6) mg/kgin patients with IBD and 726.6 mg/kg (533) in CRC. Both results were significantly elevated compared with those of healthy controls [114 (113)] mg/kg In patients with IBD, their levels correlated directly with the activity of the inflammation. 217 mg/kg was the best cut-off for discriminating patients with organic colon disorders. The sensibility was 85% and NPV was 93%. NSAIDs use was a clinical variable which was connected with a high FCP concentration in patients with normal colonoscopy. CONCLUSIONS: The higher levels of FCP were found in people with IBD and CRC. The measurement of FCP is a non-invasive, inexpensive, reliable and easily measured test. Among people with abdominal pain and diarrhoea, testing for FCP allows us to select those who must undergo a colonoscopy. NSAIDs can raise the levels of FCP in people with normal colonoscopies.


Using estimates of schooling demand function and private rate of return to education by gender derived from Household Integrated Economic Survey 2010-11, this paper attempts to examine if there is any dynamics to define a differential behaviour across gender in enrolment in Pakistan and if there is then what can be the possible cause of such discrepancies and how can they be reduced. The first set of analysis focuses on the estimates of probability of enrolment at primary, secondary and tertiary level of education by gender. Strong evidence for higher likelihood of enrolment emerges only at the secondary level of education when the gender is male. The behaviour of the determinants for these schooling demand functions at different levels of education differs by gender. One such key variable is parental education, which is more pronounced in case of mother's education towards increasing the likelihood of enrolment of girls at the primary and secondary level and of father's education for boys at all levels and girls at the tertiary level. Hence investing in female education today will not only empower females today but as a positive externality will also lead to gender equity in educational outcomes in the future. Besides this intergenerational externality of investment in female education, the finding establishes that when conditional cash programmes are targeted at mothers as a policy tool they become an effective measure in increasing current female enrolment. Moreover the case for reducing gender disparities in educational outcomes is further supported when we see how gender imbalance in educational attainment and female labour force participation lead to discrepancies in the private rate of return to education by gender. The varied estimates of private rate of returns to education for males and females show that such deviations arise because the females labour force on average is much less educated than males and hence if the object is to raise the rates of returns, a targeted policy for reducing gender differences in enrolment at all levels of education primary, secondary and tertiary will have to be implemented.


Cyst nematodes are plant parasites that cause significant crop loss in wheat and other crops. Infective juveniles invade roots and induce syncytial feeding structures as the only source of nutrients throughout their life. A previous genome-wide association study in wheat identified amino acid permease 6 ( TaAAP6 ) to be linked to susceptibility to the cereal cyst nematode Heterodera filipjevi . To characterise the role of AAP6 during nematode parasitism, we analysed the expression of TaAAP6 and the Arabidopsis orthologue AtAAP6 . TaAAP6 was found to be highly expressed in nematode-infected roots of susceptible wheat, whereas it was not upregulated in nematode-infected roots of resistant accessions. AtAAP6 was also found to be highly upregulated in nematode-induced syncytia compared with non-infected roots. Infection assays with an AtAAP6 knock-out mutant revealed reduction in developing females, female size, and size of female-associated syncytia, thus indicating the importance of AAP6 in cyst nematode parasitism.